More surgeons qutting public practice to go private: survey

More than one in six surgeons is now working solely in private practice according to a new survey prompting the senior doctors' union to say the figures should be a "wake-up call to the Government.

The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' (RACS) study found 17.5 per cent of surgeons worked only in the private sector -- matching the proportion working only in the public system.

Most New Zealand surgeons work in both public and private systems.

Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) executive director Ian Powell described the figures as "staggering" and of significance to the future of the public health system.

"If anything is going to be a wake-up call to the Government this has to be it. If they can't understand the seriousness of this they just don't get it," he told The Press newspaper.

"The way they are running things is undermining the viability of the public health system. People need doctors and this Government is pushing them away."

Mr Powell said anecdotal evidence suggested surgeons were working fewer hours in the public system, as well as leaving it to work solely in private practice or overseas, for better pay and less stress.

- NZPA